The background of the present invention is substantially as for [Rab08], incorporated herein by reference.
The state of related art and its limitations at present is illustrated by current system (not yet version 2.0) at http://www.reprap.org.
Recent theoretical work by R. A. Freitas and R. C. Merkle, “A Minimal Toolset for Positional Diamond Mechanosynthesis,” J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. (May 2008) 5:760-861, (http://www.molecularassembler.com/Papers/MinToolset.pdf) relies at important points on rotational motions and multiple manipulators operating in close proximity and so at least some proposed reactions and operations pose significant challenges for established technologies.